TYLER (Blake Security Book 2)

by Celina McKane

  I looked at the priest. He’d been the one who baptized me and gave me my First Communion…he’d heard all of my confessions, except one. “Father, hello.”

  Father O’Dell took my hands and held them between his. “I’m sorry for your loss, Tyler. Your father was a good man.”

  I nodded and managed a small smile. “Thank you, Father.” I once again tried to make it to Ariana when Michael Dupree stepped up.

  “Tyler, I’m glad you made it. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Dupree. Thank you for calling me.”

  He nodded and gave me a sad smile. “If you’re up to it, maybe we can get together in my office tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, around ten?”

  “Perfect, I’ll see you then.”

  I said hello to a couple more people at last making my way to Ariana. Once I was close enough to smell her and she smelled the same as she did when we were kids, I suddenly couldn’t breathe. I felt like a fool standing there with a dry mouth and trying to form my words.

  “Hi Ariana.”

  She gave me a small smile, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. “Hi Tyler.”

  “You look great, just the same.” Ariana’s eyes ran over my big body as I said that. I’d already shed my jacket in the car and rolled up my sleeves. I hadn’t worn a suit in years, and before I even made it to the funeral, I couldn’t wait to get it off. I watched her pretty hazel eyes rake across my tattoos on my forearms and move back up to my face. I almost shuddered under the heat in them.

  We stared at each other again for several long minutes before she said, “You look great too, but different.”

  I laughed nervously. I wondered if she thought “different” was good or bad. “Thanks, I think,” I said. She laughed softly, too. I remembered how I used to love the sound of it. “So it doesn’t look like things around here have changed much.” What the hell was I doing? How many things did I need to say to her? Yet, here I was making awkward small talk instead.

  “Yeah, it never really does, on the surface.”

  “How are your folks?”

  She looked sad again. Damn! I’d said the wrong thing already. “My mother passed away about ten years ago.”

  “Oh jeez! I’m sorry.”

  She smiled again. I would give every penny I had, and anything that I was likely to earn in the future to see that smile. Jesus, it was beautiful. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago.” I watched as her eyes moved to the car where her father had taken the boy. I thought about asking her who he was, but that was really none of my business. “I should go.”

  I nodded. “It was really good to see you.” I thought I saw the glimmer of a tear in her eye, but she held it back.

  “It was good to see you, too.” I watched then as she headed for the car that her father and the kid had gotten into. The kid stepped out and opened the door for her. She slid inside, and he closed it. Maybe he worked for her family, I thought.

  “Hey,” Sam was back at my elbow. He’d magically disappeared when Ariana and I were speaking. “I’m going to give you some time with your dad,” Sam said. “Ariana and her father are having the reception at their place. Are you going to go?”

  “She lives with her dad? She’s not married?”

  His lips twitched, but he suppressed the smile. I was trying to only sound curious, but apparently it wasn’t working. “Yeah, she still lives with the old man. That place is huge though, so it makes sense.”

  “Yeah, and they’re doing a reception at their house?” That didn’t make sense.

  He nodded. “Yeah, you want to ride over with me?”

  I shuddered at the thought. I’d give my right arm to see Ariana again, but a gathering of the whole town offering condolences was just too much. “Nah, I think I’ll pass. Why don’t you come by later and have a beer with me. We’ll catch up.”

  “I’ll do that,” he said with a smile. He clapped me on the shoulder and said, “It’s really good to have you home, man.”

  I watched my old friend walk away, and then I turned toward my parents’ graves. I walked past a basket of roses someone had sent and plucked two from it. I got close to the graves and knelt down on one knee. Dusting off Mom’s headstone, I laid the first rose across her grave and out loud I said, “I’m sorry it’s been so long, Mama. I think about you and miss you every day. I still talk to you sometimes; I hope you can hear me. My life is not what you wanted for me, but I promise you that I’m doing my best. I love you so much and I also promise I’ll come more often.” I turned towards his father’s then and said, “Hey Dad. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you. I wish that a lot of things were different. I never stopped loving you and I’m working on forgiveness and telling myself that you did the best you knew how. I hope you and Mom are back together now. I’m glad at least neither of you has to be alone any longer.” I got back to my feet and stood there for a few more minutes. Finally I bent down and laid the rose across the site where my father is interned. “I love you,” I whispered again, and then I turned and left them to each other.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  TYLER

  As I drove back up to my parents’ house, I saw that Sam was already there, sitting in the swing on the porch. He gave me a chin nod as I got out of the car and went in through the garage. I grabbed two beers and went back out through the front door. Handing one to Sam, I sat down next to him.

  “You didn’t stay long at the reception.”

  “I didn’t go. I would rather catch up with you. I see you’re still a Challenger man.”

  I smiled. “Yep. It reminds me of the one Dad and I fixed up.” The one that Brandon died in. I didn’t have to say that out loud.

  We sat silently for a while, lost in our own thoughts and sipping our beer. “How did it go with Ariana?” Sam asked.

  I laughed. “Awkward.”

  Sam nodded. “I haven’t seen her since her mother died. I was in town, so I went to the funeral with Dad and paid my respects. We didn’t really talk though. She seems to be doing alright…considering every time I see her, someone else just died.”

  “Yeah, that sucks. She told me her Mom died. What happened?”

  “She had an aneurysm I think Dad said. She was in a coma for a while. It was rough on the family. Her father especially.”

  “Damn. They’ve all died way too young.”

  “Yeah, that’s for sure.”

  “Hey, who was that kid with Ariana at the funeral?”

  Sam looked away for a second and then back at me and said, “I think maybe that’s something you need to ask her.”

  “I guess that means it’s her kid. Is the dad still around?”

  Sam shrugged. “Really, it’s Ariana’s story to tell, man.” I nodded. Sam always was a loyal friend. I couldn’t expect him to sit here and tell me personal things about Ariana.

  “So what about her dad, why was he at my dad’s funeral? They’ve hated each other for years.”

  He kind of chuckled and said, “There was a lot of reconciling going on. Ariana had a lot to do with it. She and your dad were close.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Close? When we dated they barely said two words to each other.”

  He shrugged. “Things change man. I guess they found out they had things in common. He quit drinking, you know?”

  Another wave of guilt settled in my chest. “No, I had no idea.”

  Sam nodded. “He’s been sober for about ten years. From what my dad tells me, Ariana had a lot to do with that. She managed to get your dad and hers speaking again after her mom died—and since then, they’ve all been pretty close.”

  “Wow, things might look the same around here, but they really have changed.”

  “Are you planning on sticking around?”

  “Nope.”

  “What about the company? Will you sell it?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about real estate or business.”

  “Well, before you sell, you might want to talk to
Max. He and your dad were talking about merging a while back anyways. I’m not sure he’d be able to come up with that kind of cash or collateral though.” Max, Ariana’s father, owned an investment group, and a lot of their investments were real estate and established businesses.

  “What kind of cash are we talking about?” I wasn’t prepared for Sam’s answer,

  “Close to a billion dollars.”

  *****

  After Sam left, I was sitting in the living room deep in thought when the housekeeper came in. “Mr. Petit! I didn’t realize you were home.”

  I smiled at her. I always liked Doris. She started with us as a part-time housekeeper when I was a kid. A lot of times she babysat me. Mom and Dad could have hired a nanny, but Mom always said she wanted to raise me herself. Doris was the lead housekeeper by the time I left home. “Hi Doris,” I got up and went over and kissed her cheek. “It’s good to see you.”

  “It’s wonderful to see you, sir. I’m so sorry about your father.”

  “Thank you,” I said, clearing my throat.

  “Would you like me to make you something to eat?”

  “No, I’m not really hungry. I thought I might take a drive or something.”

  “Okay, but you be careful out there.”

  “I will,” I told her.

  I turned to go and she stopped me by saying, “Sir, did you take the photos off of the mantle?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Most of the photos from the mantle are gone, as well as the frames they were in.” I looked at the fireplace mantle. There were photos there of me and Mom and all three of us on vacation. I tried to pull up a memory of what was there when I came in last night, but I was too exhausted to be observant.

  “That’s weird. Who would want our family photos?” I walked over and looked at the mantle. Light dust marks outlined the places where the photos had sat.

  “I’m not sure, sir. I’ll look around for them. Maybe one of the staff just moved them.” She didn’t sound convinced of that, and I got a creepy feeling, knowing someone had been in the house. I went upstairs and changed, and when I came back down, she was cooking dinner.

  “Hey Doris, what pictures are missing?”

  She looked like she was thinking and then said, “I’m not absolutely sure…I could just tell that there were less of them than usual.” For some reason I got the feeling she wasn’t being honest with me…but why? I let it go, for now. I spent that evening in my parents’ room, sifting through some of their things. I had been gone for so long, but as far as I could tell, things in there were untouched. My mother’s jewelry box was even still on the dresser and full of things I remembered her wearing when I was a kid. I was surprised when I left there and began wandering in and out of the other rooms. Mine had looked untouched and so did two of the guest rooms, but the third was a complete mystery to me.

  The room was decorated in sports memorabilia. My dad wasn’t into sports as far as I knew. It was a rarity for him to come to one of my football games when I was in high school. But the Saints dominated the wall on one side and the Yankees on the other. There was a glass case that held signed footballs and baseballs and a cork bulletin board with tickets from all kinds of sporting events. I went over and opened the closet. It was full of jeans and t-shirts in sizes that my dad would have outgrown before I was born. While I stood there trying to figure out what the hell was going on I spotted a laptop on the desk by the window. Next to it was a big screen television mounted to the wall and an expensive looking gaming system was hooked up to that. This looked like a kid’s room…but what kid? I went over and opened the laptop. I fired it up and waited for it to load. The background picture was of the Saints quarterback. That was as much as I could see though since it was password protected.

  I went through the desk. There were all kinds of office supplies in it and notebooks, but the notebooks were empty and in spite of all of the memorabilia, there was nothing in the room personal enough as to give a clue to who lived there. Another odd thing was the empty trophy case in the corner. There was dust in it in the shape of circles and rectangles. Something had been in there, but it had been cleaned out. There was a bookshelf along one wall as well. The books were mostly science fiction and true sports stories. I flipped through a few of the books, but there was no name in them that I could find. Once again, my head was spinning. I made my way downstairs to find Doris again, but what I found was a note and dinner. I went over to the pantry and opened it up. It was stocked with the usual supplies, but also a variety of cereal that I was sure my dad wouldn’t eat. There were cases of soda I knew he didn’t drink and energy drinks that unless he’d changed a whole hell of a lot, he didn’t drink.

  The freezer was stocked with meat, but also frozen pizza and hot pockets and burritos. Did dad have another kid I didn’t know about? If so, where was he? I opened the fridge and took out a beer and sat down with my dinner. My head was spinning with all of the questions and I could hardly eat. I finally gave up and found my phone and called Blake Donovan.

  A woman answered, “Blake Investigations, this is Lucy. How can I help you?”

  “Hi Lucy. My name is Tyler Petit. I was looking for Mr. Donovan.”

  “One moment please.”

  A few seconds passed, and I heard, “This is Blake Donovan, I can’t get to the phone right now but please leave a message and I will return your call as soon as possible.”

  He left another number in case it was an emergency. I didn’t call that one, I left a message that said, “Hey Donovan, it’s Tyler Petit. When you have a chance, give me a call, please.” I wanted to talk to him about the blue Mustang, but I was also thinking that maybe I should stay in town for a while until I got things figured out. There seemed to be a lot going on, and I had more questions by the minute. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to commit to a case or two. I didn’t need the money, but if I sat around here in this big house day in and day out, I’d lose my mind.

  I didn’t get much sleep again that night, and I was in Michael Dupree’s office at ten the next day for our meeting. Things only got weirder from there.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  TYLER

  Michael once again told me how sorry he was about my father, and I thanked him again for calling me. I sat down and Michael pulled out a stack of documents.

  “Your father left the bulk of his assets to you along with the estate and the cars, jewelry, art and furnishings. The business will transfer to you, as well. There is a part of the will that is sealed, and your father specifically requested it not be opened at this meeting.”

  “Excuse me? Sealed? Why would he do that?”

  “He wanted what he bequeathed to one or more persons kept confidential.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m not sure, Tyler. I’m just honoring his wishes.”

  “Someone was in the house yesterday, Michael.”

  “In your father’s house?” I nodded. “How do you know?”

  “Because Doris, the housekeeper, said something about photos missing off of the mantle. She got weird and clammed up when I started questioning her. Then something else weird happened. There’s a room in the house that’s decorated like it belongs to a kid. Michael, did my dad have another kid? Is that why he doesn’t want me to find out what was in the other part of his will?”

  “All I can tell you, Tyler, is that he requested confidentiality.”

  “My father was a drunk, abusive ass most of my life. He acted as if I was more of an inconvenience to him than anything. I can’t imagine that he’d be taking in stray teenagers. If he had one living with him, it had to be a relative. As far as I know, I only have cousins on my mom’s side and they live in Alaska. Dad didn’t have any siblings, so it wouldn’t be a nephew…it doesn’t make sense, Michael.”

  “I wish I could help you, Tyler…but I have an obligation to my client.”

  I felt frustration building up inside of me. I had to let it go, for now. Michael spent the next two hours going ov
er what assets my father had left me. I walked out of the office more confused than when I walked in. I had to stay in town for at least a few weeks to decide what to do with the house. If I sold it, I’d have to go through and pick out what I wanted to keep and then maybe have an estate sale. Keeping it was also an option, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to move back to Lafayette—and I doubted a fifteen-thousand-square-foot mini-mansion would be an easy thing to rent out. I planned on studying the paperwork Michael gave me over the next couple of days before making any big decisions. I was also trying to wrap my head around the fact that suddenly I’d gone from living off of my savings and military pension to having over a hundred million dollars in cash and assets. My head was pounding, and I knew shutting off my brain now would be next to impossible. As I was getting into my car, my phone rang. I put the pile of paperwork Michael gave me aside and answered it. It was Blake.

  “Hey! I’m sorry I missed you earlier; I was out on an assignment. We’re a little short around here while my partner is on his honeymoon in Hawaii.”

  “Lucky him,” I said. “But maybe I can help you out. I might be sticking around for a while. I was wondering if you still wanted my help.”

  “Hell yeah. Can you start today?”

  “Today?” I planned on going through the business paperwork, talking to Sam, and if I could reach her, talking to Ariana, too. Sam was in and out of town, so he might not know much, but Ariana was supposedly close to my dad. If he had a kid living with him, there was no way she didn’t know it.

  “Well, I did have some things of my own to take care of today. What did you have in mind?”

  “The client I met in Lafayette the other night is missing her son. He’s twenty-five, so the police have just kind of blown her off. He’s been missing for two weeks. I can fax you over the file if you’d be willing to interview some people over there for me I have a list of names and addresses in there.”

  Maybe a distraction in between taking care of my own crap wouldn’t hurt. “Sure, I can do that.” I gave him my email address and then I said, “Tell me something Blake—if you were trying to find out information about a kid, where would you start?”